Jail Budget Overrun Is of Giuliani's Making

Published: October 6, 1994

To the Editor:

At least in one area, corrections, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's claim that New York City's budget problems are based on past fiscal practices is misleading and disingenuous. The problems in the jails -- severe crowding and budget overruns from excessive overtime costs -- are the direct result of policy decisions made by the Giuliani administration.

At the Mayor's direction, the Police Department has dramatically increased misdemeanor arrests for "quality of life" offenses: loitering, marijuana possession, turnstile jumping and unsolicited squeegeeing. There are serious questions among law enforcement experts about whether or not this police deployment strategy is effective in improving public safety. One effect we do know that it has, however, is significantly to increase the flow of people into the jails.

That consequence, coupled with cutbacks in the corrections staff decreed by City Hall, have produced, not surprisingly, hazardous conditions of confinement for the staff and inmates, and have also required the overtime services of many correction officers, which is one of the factors breaking the city's budget.

The city would be better served if the Mayor stopped blaming previous administrations for current difficulties and took the steps needed to reverse some of his own mistaken policies. ROBERT GANGI Executive Director Correctional Assn. of New York New York, Sept. 30, 1994